Contemporary arts center OZ Arts Nashville today announced it’s proud to host a new visual art exhibit, Floral Maps, featuring selected textile works from artists Lauren Gregory and Nuveen Barwari. Curated by Ashley Layendecker, Gallery Director at East Nashville’s Red Arrow Gallery, and Daniel Jones, Manager of Artistic Programming at OZ Arts, the exhibit is currently on display through April 9, 2023 with additional opportunities to see the work in-person during OZ’s packed spring schedule of international performances.

One of the oldest forms of adornment, flowers date back to ancient Egyptian culture where they were used for personal beautification, gifts, and decorations. Gregory and Barwari are both artists with Nashville roots who utilize fabrics of flowers in their patterned adorned textiles, each highlighting their unique perspectives and origins. Frequently used throughout history during festivals and religious ceremonies, the artists were excited for these vibrant floral works to be shown near performance and celebrations.

Being raised in Tennessee, both artists share a common theme of creating narratives from their specific experience rooted in place. Pop culture, religious iconography, and portrayals of community are all explored by the artists in their work. Through these textile collages, they create maps that guide us to a place that may feel like home — or welcome us to a new land.

“I’m always delighted when we at Red Arrow Gallery get the chance to collaborate with OZ Arts,” says co-curator Ashley Layendecker. “Having been so familiar with each artist’s work, the idea of pairing the selected pieces side-by-side has breathed new life into these thrilling quilts and textile pieces. There’s so much to uncover in each piece – and this opportunity to view the works at OZ Arts allows viewers to dive deep into Lauren and Nuveen’s beautiful artistic practices.”

Floral Maps will be on display now through April 9th and can be viewed during OZ’s lively calendar of performances and events. To make an appointment to view the exhibit outside of the scheduled performance times, please email OZ’s Manager of Artistic Programming Daniel Jones at daniel@ozartsnashville.org.

Lauren Gregory (she/her/hers) is a painter, animator, educator and director who is best known for her technique of oil paint stop-motion animation, a way of making her paintings move.  Born and raised in the mountains of East Tennessee, she began as an observational portrait painter, capturing friends and family in quick one session sittings. Lauren is the third in a lineage of southern female painters, following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother. From these women she also learned quilting, a mode of expression that has resurfaced in recent years as a crucial part of Lauren’s aesthetic. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009, and since then has created GIFs, looped video installations, and narrative animated shorts that have screened at MoMA P.S.1, the New Museum, MOCA Los Angeles, and at museums and film festivals around the world. She has directed and animated music videos for artists including Toro y Moi, Leonard Cohen, and Norah Jones and has been awarded artist residencies in Hungary, Italy, and in Newburgh, New York. Lauren teaches painting and animation at Parsons School of Design and she teaches quilting at Ox-bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency. She is represented in New York by the Elijah Wheat Showroom, and in Nashville by the Red Arrow Gallery. Lauren lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nuveen Barwari was born in Nashville, TN (1995). Barwari received a Bachelor of Science in Studio Art from Tennessee State University in 2019 and a Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2022. Her expansive studio practice involves gathering and repurposing artifacts from her community such as worn Kurdish clothes, fabric, and used rugs to investigate the multiplicity of materials, their inherited history, and cultural meanings.  Barwari’s work has been featured in national and international publications including the Nashville Scene, New American Painting, Yahoo Nachrichten Deutschland, Gazete Duvar, and Botan Times. She has exhibited in numerous locations such as, Sugar Gallery (2019) in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Zg Gallery (2020) in Chicago, NGBK Gallery in Berlin Germany (2021), Duhok Gallery (2021) in Duhok, Kurdistan, and Ortega y Gasset Projects, in Brooklyn, NY (2022). Barwari is represented by The Red Arrow Gallery in Nashville, TN and is currently working and living in Albany, NY.

Founded in 2013 by the Ozgener family, OZ Arts Nashville has quickly established itself as one of the Southeast’s most influential and respected producers and presenters focused on the creation and presentation of significant performing and visual artworks by diverse cultural visionaries who are making vital contributions to the evolution of contemporary culture. Through performances, exhibitions, and community events, OZ Arts focuses on producing and presenting the work of local and visiting artists who reflect our diverse society, utilize new artistic forms and technology in creative ways, and provide opportunities for meaningful engagement with audiences, students and cultural and civic leaders. OZ Arts’ unique creative warehouse has developed a reputation as a major national and regional laboratory for experimentation and a home for contemporary dance and performance. More than 50,000 audience members have been introduced to adventurous artists from around the world since the organization opened, and hundreds of local and regional artists have used OZ’s 10,000 square-foot warehouse theater to develop new works. For more information, please visit ozartsnashville.org.